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Helmsman

Revision as of 19:24, 16 February 2011 by 71.193.250.207 (contribs)
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The helmsman (or helm officer) was the Starfleet crewperson who operated the helm console on 23rd century Federation starships.

The helmsman of those vessels worked in concert with the navigator, who plotted the ship's course. On the USS Enterprise, the helmsman controlled both the speed and attitude of the ship, as well as the ship's weapon and shield systems. Other spacefaring services use the term helmsman also, the 22nd century Earth Starfleet for one, but it isn't clear if there is the same relationship with a navigation console, since vessels like Enterprise NX-01 had a single helm station.

By the 24th century, the helm and navigation stations became combined as the flight controller position. Also, control of weapons and defenses is usually handled by the tactical station or the operations officer, rather than their 23rd century equivalents, under the control of the helmsman.

One possible explanation as to why the helm and navigation stations were separate in the 23rd century but not before is that the combination of flight control, weapons control, and navigation would have been too much for one officer to handle. For this reason, navigation would be assigned to a separate officer, and the stations became combined again later after the decision was made to once again make weapons control a separate entity.
It should also be noted that the USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E did not have a permanent Helmsman (or a Senior Helm Officer), as this position was regularly shifted among several crew members including those in the senior staff.
Most command division officers (Captains and Commanders/Executive Officers) in Starfleet have held the position of Helmsman at least once in their careers. Examples of this are Jonathan Archer, Hikaru Sulu, Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker, Worf, and Chakotay. This suggests that a basic competence in shiphandling is a requirement for command-level ranks.

List of helmsmen

NX Beta
Enterprise NX-01
USS Enterprise NCC-1701/A/B/C/D/E/(alternate reality)
USS Defiant (NX-74205)
USS Voyager

Unnamed helmsmen

These articles have entries about unnamed crewpeople who've occupied the helm or conn station.

External link

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